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The Eidolon (Maze Arcade-Adventure)
Compatibility: 64K Apple II series
Requirements: One disk drive, joystick optional
There's no telling how many daring explorers have wandered through Argon House in the roughly ninty years it's been deserted. Certainly, finding the hiden basement had been a piece of dumb luck. Or, maybe it was fate.
Perhaps YOU were meant to unravel the enigma of the beautifully crafted device (a time machine?) resting in the center of what appears to be a laboratory. A yellowed journal (the records of old Josef Argon himself!) only confirms these speculations. This machine, you read, is named "The Eidolon"; but where it goes not even its eccentric creator was prepared to guess!
"Eidolon" equates with "phantom", "ignormus", "figment", etc.-- that which is but really isn't or, at least, shouldn't be. All aptly characterize the strange grey labyrinth to which "The Eidolon" transports its passenger. Here your craft moves about freely, though some care must be exercised to avoid power-draining contact with the place's odd inhabitants.
Fortunately, the controls are easily mastered and responsive. Better yet, the maze's physics supply energy and some valuable new capabilities via variously colored "fireballs" and jewels which "The Eidolon" can capture as well as launch.
Red, the journal informs you, repels most creatures, sometimes transforming one into a jewel; yellow recharges your power reserves; green changes one creature into some other; and blue seems to backup time a few ticks. As for the jewels, they are clearly the keys to mastering the dragon guardians of the portals between levels. (Argon theorized there are seven such portals, though the journal ends with only expressions of optimism that a breakthrough was near.) Impressive; but you soon come to realize that this catalogue is but the beginnings of an involved set of bizaar relationships.
As in "Hacker", Epyx's The Eidolon leaves much about how things operate to be discovered by the player-- a nice ploy when it works; and in this game it works very well. At the start you know which instruments indicate proximity to a portal, heading, active fireballs and jewels, elapsed time, and power level. You are also aware that if power reaches zero or time runs out, poof!, you wind up back in the lab.
The journal neglects to mention that if your return is timer-prompted you must reenter at the beginning level; whereas a no-power return allows reentry at the level vacated. (Valuable information, since there is no 'game save' option.)
Every once in a while you come across a game so refreshingly different, yet so wierdly alien that doubts may arise as to its terrestrial origins. "The Bilestoad" and "Ankh" are examples; an elite group now joined by The Eidolon. Despite temporal constraints, pacing is liesurely; so there is plenty of time to explore a very interesting, increasingly convoluted environment. Fascinating in concept, The Eidolon will transport you to many hours of mind-blowing fun.
Available from EPYX: 1043 Kiel Court, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. (408) 745-0700. $39.95
GRFX S.M. PLAY DIFF INTR GAME
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